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TESSERAE: Suborbital launch test

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Ariel Ekblaw

Ariel Ekblaw, photo courtesy of Felix Kraemer

by Ariel Ekblaw

April 29, 2019

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On May 2nd, 2019 we launched three TESSERAE v2 hardware tiles into space and back! They rode to just over 100km (past the Karman line) on Blue Origin's suborbital rocket vehicle, New Shepard, and were free to test self-assembly autonomous docking over three minutes of sustained microgravity. Follow along below for prototype photos and launch footage!

Copyright

Ariel Ekblaw

Copyright

Ariel Ekblaw

Copyright

Ariel Ekblaw

Copyright

Ariel Ekblaw

Copyright

Ariel Ekblaw

The next major testing milestone for TESSERAE will be an interior ISS (International Space Station) 30 day mission, experimenting with prolonged activity and numerous dynamic, autonomous self assembly actuations over this longer duration in microgravity. Stay tuned for results from this next research deployment!

Looking to read more about the TESSERAE project and how we're designing for habitation scale self-assembling space architecture? Check out the main project page:

TESSERAE main project page
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